I guess I just really hate secrets
by klebekaholic
Summary: My version of events after Jackson's reveleation in 2x12, how I believe Hayley should have reacted


A/N – This is what I believe should have happened after Jackson's revelation in The Originals, Season Two – Episode Twelve, "Sanctuary."

I don't think the writers did Hayley justice in the reaction they wrote. I believe Hayley should have reacted more emotionally to learning who killed her parents. The way she reacted was so blasé considering her entire storyline in TVD/TO was rooted in and began because Hayley just wanted to find out about her true family. And since she just found out someone so close to her had been holding onto a vital part of information… I believe she should've reacted differently… So I wrote it.

* * *

"What is this place?" Hayley asked as she glanced around the wooden poles stuck in the ground, some marked with initials. Jackson had taken her into a part of the bayou she'd never seen before, a little clearing that were littered with several wooden poles. The markers were few and far in between, it looked almost like a graveyard… but it couldn't be, could it? Wolves didn't bury their dead, they sent them down the river. Hayley had learned at least that much from her time with the pack. It was considered someone's final right.

"It's where wolves bury those that walk away from the pack... Traitors, murderers, like this one..." Jackson explained, gesturing to a marker with the Initials 'RXD' carved into it above a crescent moon.

Hayley knelt beside it to examine the markings, it looked fairly weathered, definitely not recent.

"Richard Xavier Dumas. He was Mary's husband, my grandfather." Jackson carried on. "He was an alpha of his time, militant, radical, hell-bent on waging war with vampires."

Hayley stood. For a second she was confused as to why Jackson was telling her this, though as he carried on, it dawned on her.

"When he found out that your parents and mine planned to join the packs, try for peace with Marcel and his crew, he went ballistic."

"It was him, wasn't it?" Hayley asked, voice thick. She couldn't look at Jackson. And for a second she didn't know why. Then she realised… she was angry at him. She never thought she could be angry at Jackson. "He was the one that killed my parents."

"He wanted to stop them, everything they stood for, and he did." Jackson said, sounding as if he were apologising for his grandfather's crime. She could see him looking at her, trying to meet her gaze. Though after a few seconds he gave up and looked down at the grave, ashamed.

"I have spent my entire life wondering what happened to them." Hayley turned to him then, looking at the guilt etched in his face. She wanted to tell him it was okay, that it wasn't his fault. He wasn't the one who killed them. But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She just couldn't. "Why did you wait so long to tell me?" she asked evenly.

"No. I didn't know until Mary told me. She said she'd held on to the secret of what my grandfather did for two decades and knew it was time for it to come out... "Jackson said quietly. Hayley struggled to keep her face straight as she listened to him carry on, after a few seconds she just had to turn away so he couldn't see her. "But I knew I had to be the one to tell you truth is, I didn't know if I could."

Hayley swallowed thickly before demanding - "How long have you known?" She was working hard to control her voice as she lifted her gaze onto Jackson. "When did Mary tell you that my parents were killed by your grandfather? When? When did she tell you?"

"When I told her who you were, that you were Andrea and that you'd returned home… That was when she told me. Before the party and the fire…" Jackson said quietly, unable to meet her gaze. "A while… I guess I've known a while."

"That was a year ago Jack. You've known a year?!" Hayley lifted her gaze from the grave onto him, narrowing her eyes, voice raising. "You know the entire reason I came here was to find out about my family, to know _every last detail_. I've done things, _horrible horrible_ things, _people have_ _ **died**_ _for this!_ I made deals with the devil to find out about my family - to find out the tiniest scraps of information – " she started, hearing her words build into a rant before she was suddenly cut off.

"Hayley, I'm so s-" Jackson started, putting his hands up as if asking her to go easy on him, showing he was defenceless.

"You've known this entire time who it was that killed them!" Hayley roared, her volume increasing tenfold, interrupting his apology (she just did _not_ want to hear it right now, she never wanted to hear it) and stepping forward, her anger only rising further when he recoiled from her rather than stand his ground and provide reasoning for something she was so close to considering a betrayal of trust."That's not just a _secret_ Jack! That's _lying_! You've lied to me! You've held me as I _cried_ because I didn't know anything of their final moments, of what happened to them whilst I was just ten feet away in my crib! You told me, _you promised me_ , you would help me find out _everything_ and the _entire time_ you were keeping this from me!" she seethed, angrily wiping tears that had escaped her eyes. She swallowed thickly and tore her gaze from him, taking a deep breath to calm the trembles before she burst into tears in front of him. "I trusted you Jack. I thought you were there for me… The things I've done... still keep me up at night. The people I hurt... the friend I betrayed, all to know about my parents... And you kept this from me for so long Jack, I... " Hayley whispered, her voice breaking before she could continue her tirade. A few seconds later Hayley just shook her head at him before walking away.

* * *

Hayley was sat at the edge of the river when Jackson came to find her a few hours later. She'd spent the best part of her time alone in silent tears against her knee. She didn't know why she found the smallest of details so important. She knew her parents had been betrayed by someone they'd trusted, she knew they'd been murdered horrifically, so she didn't quite understand why a name was so important to her. But it was, it was a small part of the puzzle, but a part of the puzzle nonetheless. She couldn't complete the picture without it. And Jackson had been holding onto that piece, he'd withheld it from her for so long when he knew she was _desperate_ for information, for the slightest scraps of knowledge of her parents.

He just stood there in silence. She could hear him lingering behind her. She waited a few minutes before turning to face him.

"I don't blame you, Jack. You weren't the one who killed them… I just wished you'd have told me sooner…" Hayley sniffed, sighing deeply and getting up to join him "I guess I just really hate secrets."


End file.
